Display panel for a door handle

ABSTRACT

The display panel has an outer surface to which a sign may be attached and an inner surface having a fastener composed of resiliently deformable material. An end of the fastener is separated from the display panel by a slit which is adapted to receive an outer plate of a conventional door handle The outer plate is held in the slit by the resiliently deformable composition of the fastener. The plate may however be removed from the slit by the application of a force opposed to the bias of the resilient material in order to widen the slit.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to display panels for supporting signs and moreparticularly to a display panel which may be removably attached to thehandle of a door and to which a sign may be removably attached.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is known to attach a display panel which supports a sign to a doorhandle of the type which is either pushed or pulled but is not turned.Such handles are found in the doors which open to the outdoors of mostcommercial and industrial buildings in North America.

A handle which is pushed or pulled usually has an elongated outer platewhich is spaced apart from the door so that the handle can be grippedshould the door be opened by pulling. Known display panels are attachedto such handles by various means such as clamps, screws and bolts andexamples of such display panels are described in Canadian patentapplication no. 2,454,212.

A sign supported by the panel may display an advertisement, a messagesuch as “Push” or “Pull” or other information. It is generally thoughtthat a door handle is a good location for a sign since the sign islikely to be noticed by everyone who walks through the door for theobvious reason that the handle must be deliberately looked at to beusable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The display panel of the subject invention which may be easily attachedand detached from most conventional door handles that are pushed orpulled. The display panel has an outer face to which a permanent signcan be attached. Alternatively, a temporary sign can be readily attachedto and detached from the display panel should that be desired.

Briefly the display panel of the subject invention includes inner andouter oppositely facing surfaces. The outer surface has means forremovable attachment of a sign while the inner surface has a fastenerwhich is composed of resiliently deformable material. The fastenercomprises a wall which commences at a starting position on the displaypanel, continues away from the inner surface on a first curve to an apexthen continues on a second curve toward the inner surface and ends at aterminal edge. The terminal edge faces the inner surface and is theclosest portion of the wall to the inner surface on its second curve.The terminal edge is spaced apart from the inner surface by a slit. Theslit is free of any obstruction therein and is adapted to receive theouter plate of the door handle therein. The terminal edge is biased bythe resiliently deformable material of the fastener into contact withthe outer plate when the plate is received in the slit. As a result,removal of the plate from the slit is resisted. The application of aforce opposed to the bias of the resilient material causes the slit towiden in order to permit the removal of the outer plate therefrom

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The display panel of my invention is described with reference to theaccompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a relatively long display panel of thesubject invention in combination with a conventional door handle;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a shorter and wider display panel incombination with a similarly shaped door handle;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the display panel;

FIG. 3A is an enlarged perspective view of a fastener of the displaypanel;

FIG. 4 is an elevation of the display panel which is substantially thesame as the one illustrated in FIG. 3 in combination with a conventionaldoor handle and a sign;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a the display panel in conjunction witha conventional push-type door handle;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view, in larger scale, of the sign illustratedin FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of the display panel incombination with two signs;

FIG. 8 is an end view of the display panel;

FIG. 9 is an end view of alternative embodiment of the panel;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a portion of the display panel showingthe manner in which a sign is disconnected from the panel; and

FIG. 11 is an exploded perspective view of the display panel and a signdisconnected therefrom.

Like reference characters refer to like parts throughout the descriptionof the drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

With reference to FIG. 1 the display panel of the invention, generally10, is shown in conjunction with a conventional door handle, generally12. The door handle has inner and outer plates 14, 16 interconnected bya web 18. As is conventional, the inner plate has a number of aperturesthrough which screws or bolts pass in order to attach the plate to adoor 20.

With reference to FIGS. 3 and 3A, the display panel has inner and outeroppositely facing surfaces 20, 22 and oppositely facing side surfaces24, 26. The inner surface is flat and terminates at a semi-circularfastener 28 composed of resiliently deformable material.

The fastener is composed of a wall 30 which commences at a startingposition 32 on the display panel. The wall continues away from the innersurface on a first curve 34 to an apex 36 then continues on a secondcurve 38 toward the inner surface 20 and ends at a terminal edge 40. Theterminal edge faces the inner surface and is the closest portion of thesecond curve of the wall to the inner surface.

The terminal edge is spaced apart from the inner surface by a slit 42.The slit is completely free of any obstruction therein and runs thelength of the fastener.. The slit is adapted to receive the outer doorplate 16 therein. The fastener is composed of resiliently deformablematerial which biases the terminal edge 40 into contact with the outerplate when the outer plate is received in the slit with resultingresistance to removal of the plate from the slit. The application of aforce opposed to the bias of the resilient material causes the slit towiden so that the outer plate can be removed from the slit.

The area of the inner surface beneath the fastener, indicated 20 a, isflat unlike the like area 50 beneath fastener 52 in FIG. 4 which isrounded.

With reference to Figure 1, the forward edge 16 a of the outer plate ofthe door handle is received in the slit while the upper edge 16 b of theouter plate of the door handle illustrated in FIG. 2 is received in theslit of the display panel.

The thickness of the outer plate of the door handle is greater than theslit in fastener 28 so that the terminal edge of the fastener must bephysically separated from the inner surface of the panel before theforward end of the outer plate can be inserted into the slit. If theforward end is pressed against the slit, the terminal edge will separatesufficiently from the inner surface of the panel to receive the outerplate. Such pressure will accordingly cause the slit to widen throughoutits length. Once the plate is in the slit, the terminal edge of thefastener, being biased by the resiliently deformable material of thefastener, will snap toward the inner surface of the panel therebysecuring the panel firmly to the outer plate.

As previously indicated, the terminal edge and the portion of the innersurface which constitute the slit contact the outer plate throughoutsubstantially their entire length except for the terminal portions ofthe slit as noted below. As a result, removal of the plate from betweenthe edges is resisted throughout substantially the entire length of theslit. In order to remove the plate, a force opposed to the bias of theresilient material must be applied to widen the slit sufficiently inorder to permit the removal of the plate from the slit.

It should also be noted and, with reference to FIG. 3, that the slit iswider adjacent to its two ends or terminal portions a,b than in itsmiddle or intermediate portion c. As a result, the outer plate may moreeasily be slid into the slit than would be the case if the slit were ofuniform width throughout its length.

With reference to FIG. 4, on the outer surface 60 of the display panel,a number of ribs 62 extend outwardly, The ribs are shortest nearest theside surfaces 64, 66 of the panel and longest at the centre. A groove 70is formed adjacent to each side surface.

An arcuate sign 72 is removably attached to the outer surface of thedisplay panel. The side margins 74 of the sign are received in grooves70 while the area of the sign between the margins rest on the outer endsof the ribs.

With reference to FIG. 5, the display panel is shown attached to aconventional push-type door handle having a flat central plate 82 andbars 84 at either end of the plate for interconnecting the plate to thedoor.

With reference to FIG. 6, the illustrated sign is of the sameconstruction as that illustrated in FIG. 4 and has an arcuate centralarea 86 to which a number of frames 88 are attached. Each frame has agroove 90 on its inner surface for receipt of the margins of a smallersign.

In FIG. 7, the display panel and signs are similar to those illustratedin FIG. 4 except that the display panel is widened to accommodate twosigns 92, 94 The signs are arranged side by side in a parallelspaced-apart relationship on the outer surface of the panel.

The signs are secured to the panel by their margins which fit intogrooves 96 in the outer surface of the panel and by an end plate 98having a pair of spaced pins 100 which fit into channels 102 in theouter surface of the display panel.

The sign is normally flat but sufficiently flexible to form into an arcas illustrated in FIG. 8. Alternatively, the sign can be formed with anarcuate outer surface 104 as illustrated in FIG. 9, and a flat innersurface 106. Whichever the shape of the sign, it is secured to thedisplay panel by grooves 108.

With reference to FIG. 10, the sign can be removed from the displaypanel by prying it out by means of flat bar or lever 112. To this end,the lower end of the lever is placed between the end plate 114 and thesign 116 and the upper end of the lever is pushed down in order toremove the margins of the sign from the grooves of the display panel.

With reference to FIG. 11, the sign 120 is slid along the grooves 122 ofthe display panel and is held in position by means of end plate 124which is attached to the panel by means of screws 126.

The sign is composed of stiff but bendable material so that it can beinserted into the frame by flexing it slightly. Once inside the groovesof the display panel, the sign will remain there until it isintentionally flexed to allow it to be removed.

It will be understood, of course, that modifications can be made in thestructure of the display panel without departing from the scope andpurview of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

1. A display panel for attachment to a door handle having an outer plateadapted to be manually pushed or pulled in order to open and close saiddoor, said display panel including inner and outer oppositely facingsurfaces, said outer surface having means for removable attachment of asign, said inner surface having a fastener which is composed ofresiliently deformable material, said fastener comprising a wall whichcommences at a starting position on said display panel, continues awayfrom said inner surface on a first curve to an apex then continues on asecond curve toward said inner surface and ends at a terminal edge, saidterminal edge facing said inner surface and being the closest portion ofsaid wall on said second curve to said inner surface, said terminal edgebeing spaced apart from said inner surface by a slit, said slit beingfree of any obstruction therein and being adapted to receive said outerplate therein, said terminal edge being biased by said resilientlydeformable material into contact with said outer plate when said outerplate is received in said slit with resulting resistance to removal ofsaid plate from said slit, the application of a force opposed to thebias of said resilient material causing the slit to widen in order topermit the removal of said outer plate therefrom.
 2. The display panelof claim 1 wherein said slit has terminal portions at either end and anintermediate portion between said terminal portions, the space betweenthe edges which define said terminal portions being wider apart than thespace between the edges which define said intermediate portion.
 3. Thedisplay panel of claim 1 wherein said outer surface has a plurality ofribs which extend outwardly therefrom and against which said sign isadapted to abut
 4. The display panel of claim 1 wherein said means forremovable attachment of a sign includes a groove which is formed in saidouter surface and which is of a size suitable for accommodation of amargin of said sign such that said margin is removably secured therein5. The display panel of claim 4 wherein said groove has four spacedapart parallel extents for receipt of the margins of a pair of sign suchthat said signs are in a parallel spaced apart relationship whenattached to said display panel
 6. The display panel of claim 4 whereinsaid outer surface has a raised frame in which is formed said groove,said groove extending along the length of said frame.
 7. The displaypanel of claim 4 wherein said groove has a pair of spaced apart parallelextents and said outer wall has a plurality of ribs which extendoutwardly therefrom and against which said sign is adapted to abut, saidribs being disposed between and parallel to said pair of extents andspaced apart from one another.
 8. The display panel of claim 7 furtherincluding an end plate which is removably attached to said display panelfor removably securing said sign within said groove.
 9. The displaypanel of claim 8 wherein said end plate has a pair of pins and saiddisplay panel has a pair of channels in which said pins are removablyreceived.
 10. The display panel of claim 7 wherein said groove has fourspaced apart parallel extents and said outer wall has a plurality ofribs which extend outwardly therefrom and against which said sign isadapted to abut, said ribs being disposed parallel to said extents andspaced apart from one another, said grooves adapted to receive marginsof a pair of signs such that said signs are in a parallel spaced apartrelationship with each other when attached to said display panel.